Kalidar
Despite being hostile to human life, ' Kalidar IV', better known simply as Kalidar, is the only inhabited world of the Kalidar System. Officially classified as an Industrial World, Kalidar's strategic value comes from its large deposits of psycho-reactive Lorelei crystals. Once harvested and refined, these Lorelei crystals become the conducting elements for many tools of the Scholastica Psykana such as Force Weapons or Psychic Hoods. The presence of the Lorelei is the sole reason why the Imperium of Mankind is present on Kalidar at all, for its arid climate, intense, ionising solar radiation, atmospheric disturbances and other hazards create particularly harsh conditions to live in. In 395.M41, Kalidar came under attack by the Orks of WAAAGH! Gratzdakka, a conflict which entered the annals of the Imperium as the Kalidar War, a hard-fought war that was only won at great expense by the forces of the Astra Militarum. History Compared to other worlds of the Imperium whose history often spans tens of Terran millennia, Kalidar is a fairly young world as it was only settled in the wake of the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium. However, Imperial records remain obscure as to exactly when after that era Kalidar was first colonised. The colonisation of Kalidar was initiated in the planet's southern hemisphere where its first hive city and administrative capital, Hive Meradon, was founded. At roughly about the same time, its northern counterpart -- Hive Modulus -- was constructed, for the intense radiation of Kalidar's sun is so harmful that most human settlements on the world need to be located underground to protect their populations. As the colonisation effort swiftly proceeded, the Adeptus Mechanicus was tasked with performing geological surveys of the Lorelei deposits in the Khalidarian deserts, mapping the location of the richest concentrations and the purity of their crystals. The Mechanicus' evaluation led the planetary government to found several new cities, each close to the most promising mining sites. Five more hive cities were founded in quick succession and interlinked by a net of subterranean transit ways to promote trade and the exchange of resources. However, Kalidar's turbulent magnetosphere and intense, ionising solar radiation greatly hindered Vox communication across the planet's surface. The hive cities of Kalidar were initially constructed in sandy areas where the Lorelei was mainly collected with the help of gigantic sand-crawlers, enormous vehicles that sifted through the sand in search of the precious crystals. Despite the low quality of this form of Lorelei, the industrial output of Kalidar's settlements soon made them profitable, and their production was gradually increased, eventually reaching 36 gigatons of refined lorelei per Terran year in the case of Hive Meradon. At some point prior to the 37th Millennium, a second geological survey of Kalidar's yet untapped regions was conducted. This second survey discovered unprecedented deposits of extrenely pure Lorelei beneath the region known as the Ozymandian Basin. The construction of a new hive city -- Hive Kimeradon -- soon began, but due to the psychic resonance of the high-grade Lorelei veins, the construction teams were constantly plagued with frightening visions and other psychically-induced trauma. Prolonged exposure to the Lorelei ultimately caused the members of the construction team to suffer psychotic breaks and attack each other, resulting in the deaths of the entire team. The infamous last transmission of the Hive Kimeradon Constructor Team gave birth to the notion of "the Ghosts of Kalidar" and their macabre fate prevented any further expansion of Lorelei mining operations into the Ozymandian Basin. Other than the fiasco that marked the birth of Hive Kimeradon, mining operations on Kalidar proceeded unhindered until 395.M41 when the planet found itself in the path of an Ork WAAAGH!. After making planetfall in the southern hemisphere, the Greenskins quickly overran Kalidar's meager Planetary Defence Force and took possession of Hive Meradon, killing Planetary Governor Lozallio Cann in the process. While the Orks could easily have swept aside all remaining Imperial resistance on Kalidar, inexplicably they lingered, occupying Hive Meradon for a full two Terran years before Astra Militarum reinforcements as well as a Crusade of Black Templars Space Marines could be diverted to the stricken Industrial World. By then, the Orks under "Arch-Skarlord General" Gratzdakka Wur Mekdakka had firmly entrenched themselves in and around Hive Meradon. The local population had even begun to call the fallen hive city "Orktown". But with the arrival of the Astra Militarum and Black Templars forces, the reclamation of Kalidar could begin, unleashing what Imperial savants have named the Kalidar War. Notable Events *'The Kalidar War (395.M41)' - Unheralded, a massive WAAAGH! of Orks fell upon Kalidar. Led by one of their most visionary leaders, Gratzdakka Wur Mekdakka of the Blood Axes klan, the Orks landed in Kalidar's southern hemisphere and quickly took possession of Kalidar's capital, Hive Meradon. Planetary Governor Lazallio Cann was slain but the Imperial defenders kept the Orks from breaking through in the subterranean transit-ways despite heavy casualties. An astropathic distress-signal was sent to and received by the sector authorities. Having concluded their campaign against the Aeldari in the Dentares Belt, an Astra Militarum taskforce was re-routed to Kalidar. On their way to the warzone, the battlegroup was reinforced by newly-raised regiments from Paragon, but these much needed reinforcements were delayed by turbulence in the Warp. It took two Terran years for Battlegroup Kalidar to reach its destination, two years during which Kalidar had to fight the Orks alone and unsupported. Unknown to the Imperial authorities, the Greenskins had begun to exploit the local deposit of Lorelei crystals to advance their own machines and the power of their Weirdboyz. The first offensives of the Astra Militarum following their arrival ended in disaster, as the Orks now possessed the ability to foretell the Imperial forces' movements and lure them into well-planned ambushes. Harassed by guerilla tactics, booby-trapped tanks and Kommando attacks, the Imperial troops reeled under the successive blows of the Orks. One Greenskin attack nearly succeeded in slaying the battlegroup's commanders inside their own Command Leviathan. It was only then that the Imperial forces realised that the Ork possessed a powerful psyker, the Weirdboy Greeneyes, who had attained a level of mastery over his powers that allowed him to read the minds of his human foes. With this information, Captain-General Iskhandrian proceeded to send his troops out into combat with sealed orders. A special mission was conducted by elements of the 7th Paragonian Super-Heavy Tank Company and the 42nd Paragonian Tank Regiment in an attempt to take the Orks by surprise. This mission succeeded in greatly disrupting the Ork defences around Hive Meradon and destroyed the psychically-powered Gargant used by Greeneyes. With the timely arrival of the Black Templars of the Michaelus Crusade, Gratzdakka himself was soon slain, which led to the full collapse of the WAAAGH! and the ultimate salvation of Kalidar. Geography and Culture For human life to settle and prosper on Kalidar, it had to show remarkable adaptability. As its classification as a Desert World indicates, Kalidar is is dominated by large deserts sometimes delimited by the remains of once proud mountain-ranges that have been diminished by millennia of steady erosion by the winds. With no vegetation to break its strength, the wind continuously carves at these mountains, fueling the growth of Kalidar's deserts and their every-changing landscape of shifting dunes. These heavier particles may readily referred to as "sand" and it constitutes but the first of many hazards on Kalidar. Carried by the wind, these heavier sand-particles are sharp enough to attack a grown man's skin and especially the softer tissues of the cornea. Several testimonies even compare Kalidar's sand to the sharpness of ground glass. Stepping outside without protective googles irremediably leads to blindness. Fauna and Flora Notable locations *Hive Kimeradon *Hive Meradon *Hive Modulus *Mcaree's Flatlands *Ozymandian Bassin *Penumbric Badlands *Vorsanii Aridity Sources *''Baneblade'' (Novel) by Guy Haley Category:K Category:Industrial World Category:Desert World Category:Death World Category:Imperial planets Category:Planets Category:Imperium